A few thoughts on Kinect, Microsoft's new wave-your-hands-and-feet-to-play-the-Xbox-game accessory.
The Kinect has undoubted novelty value. The same sense of delight that kids first had in playing with the Wii's motion controllers is replicated here. But is its motion detecting technology good enough to reach beyond those who will buy it purely for novelty value? Will it hack the stress-testing of more sophisticated games that go beyond bowling or yoga? Having had a shot at some of the basic games, it's impossible to make a conclusion on this yet.
Kinect will launch with 15 titles. Today, we saw six of them. They are: Dance Central, a dancing game from Rock Band developer Harmonix; Kinect Sports, a game that offers football, bowling, track, and more; Kinect Joy Ride, a racing game; Kinect Adventures, a game for navigating down rivers and railroad tracks while trying to hit targets; Your Shape, an exercise game; and Kinectimals, a playing-with-animals game for kids.
Business wise, this is a very big gamble for Microsoft. It is betting a lot on Kinect.
So it goes without saying that Kinect is almost certainly likely to be a loss leader for Microsoft (as Xbox 360 was for three years). But that makes sense. This is about trying to get volume sales in the market, not chasing initial profit margin. By getting volume, the biggest and best game developers become interested in creating games for the platform. If the hottest new games then make it onto the platform, more people will buy the Kinect. And the cycle wil continue.
I asked the company's vice president for Xbox in Europe, Chris Lewis whether it was going to be a loss leader. He skilfully dodged the question, twice. But he did admit that it was important to establish Kinect as a platform. And he did say that Microsoft's Xbox division would continue to be in profit over the next year.
There's no price on the Kinect yet.But it is widely believed to be targeted at around the €150 mark. It will definitely be available before Christmas in Ireland, says Chris Lewis.
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